We are honoured to be the chairs of the 2018 Annual Campaign Kickoff. We take on this responsibility with a deep commitment to the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, to our Jewish community, to our country, and to our homeland of Israel.

We moved to Ottawa in June 2000 and, very quickly, this became our home, in the truest sense of the word. We are both originally from Montreal and our three children – Noah, Matthew and Julie – were born in Toronto. Our decision to move to Ottawa was based primarily on quality of life and proximity to extended family. We each have siblings in Ottawa and Montreal and all four grandparents were in Montreal as well. While raising a young family is busy and challenging, Ottawa offers calmness, a sense of balance, and a lifestyle that we appreciated immediately and we continue to value so greatly. [Read more…]

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin published an open letter today in response to the controversy generated by the cabinet decision to suspend the agreement reached in 2016 to create an expanded section for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall.

Rivlin wrote: “As a child, I used to walk with my father to the Kotel (Western Wall) each year to hear the shofar blown at the end of Yom Kippur, at a time when Jerusalem was under the British Mandate. I still remember arriving at the crowded area packed with worshippers, while among them waited uniformed British policemen. The tense silence was eventually broken by the cry of the shofar that sounded strongly despite the British policemen who immediately rushed forward to silence the shofar blower who was closely surrounded by his fellow worshippers. For me, this event was a symbol of the eternal faith of our People. [Read more…]

(JTA) – A St. Louis man accused of making eight bomb threats against Jewish institutions pleaded guilty to cyberstalking charges.

Juan Thompson, 32, also pleaded guilty on Tuesday in a U.S. District Court in Manhattan to a charge of conveying false information and hoaxes, The Associated Press reported. In April, the former journalist denied the charges. [Read more…]

(JTA) – A committee of the Walloon Parliament in southern Belgium has voted to ban the slaughter of unstunned animals, a requirement for both kosher and halal ritual slaughter.

The environment committee of the Walloon Parliament voted unanimously on Friday for the ban, which takes effect on Sept. 1, 2019. The issue is set to be debated later this month in the Parliament’s plenary, according to the European Jewish Congress (EJC). Similar legislation has been proposed by the parliament in the northern Belgium Flanders or Flemish region. [Read more…]

We already knew that Harold Bornstein, M.D., personal physician to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, was a bit unconventional.

To recap: His public letter about Trump’s health, released a year ago, included a typo and was swimming with hyperbole, assuring readers that Trump “will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” We also learned that the doctor is an Italian aficionado, delivering a speech in the language at his son’s bar mitzvah.

Now, a three-hour interview that Bornstein, a gastroenterologist, gave to the medical publication Stat has filled out the picture — and it hasn’t really changed much. Here are some nuggets from the colourful portrait of the Jewish man who keeps Trump healthy.

He sounds relaxed about the prospect of Trump dying in office.

Bornstein — who took over the practice of his father, Jacob, who grew up in a Yiddish-speaking home — hadn’t considered that, at 70, Trump would be the oldest president ever to take office. But the doctor isn’t too worried about the threat of his passing away.

“If something happens to him, then it happens to him,” Bornstein told Stat. “It’s like all the rest of us, no? That’s why we have a vice president and a speaker of the House and a whole line of people. They can just keep dying.” [Read more…]

Everything old is new again. Apparently, it’s very de rigueur to float in a sensory deprivation tank. This is something I tried in Montreal in the 1980s. The tank looks like a cross between a large coffin and one of the Apollo command modules I watched splash down on black-and-white TV when I was a child. The tank contains water with a high concentration of Epsom salt so you float effortlessly, like in the Dead Sea. It’s sort of like being in a tanning bed, minus the skin cancer risk, or like being in an MRI machine minus the loud banging. It can be eerily dark and silent in the tank especially if you close the hatch, hence the name sensory deprivation. The aim is relaxation, and the intended result from the floating and isolation is a temporary reduction in stress and pain.

Sensory-deprivation therapy is available in trend-setting cities like New York City and Los Angeles, but I was surprised to learn that there are a few places in Ottawa offering this service. While I’m not convinced that all of the numerous benefits listed on these and other such companies’ websites have been scientifically validated, I do think it’s worth a try. Meditation pods, which I’ve never experienced, are similar but without the water. Apparently they’re gaining momentum in some high-end health clubs and hotels. [Read more…]

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed remarks made last week by the Israeli army’s deputy chief of staff in which he appeared to compare Israel and its military to the rise of Nazism in Germany.

“The remarks are fundamentally incorrect. They should not have been made at any time, much less now,” Netanyahu said Sunday at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting. “They do injustice to Israeli society and cause a belittling of the Holocaust. The deputy chief of staff is an outstanding officer, but his remarks on this issue were utterly mistaken and unacceptable to me.” [Read more…]

(JTA) – A Belgian Jew whose leg was blown off in a suicide bombing at Brussels’ main airport said he would immigrate to Israel.

Walter Benjamin plans to make aliyah when he recovers from the injury he sustained in the March 22 attack, he told Israel’s Channel 2 Sunday. The attack was part of a series of bombings in the Belgian capital that killed 35 people and wounded hundreds. [Read more…]

RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) – Days after Israel agreed to withdraw a former settler leader as its ambassador to Brazil, Brasilia approved the appointment of a lower-level Israeli diplomat to Sao Paulo.

The Brazilian government formally approved Dani Goren as Israel’s consul general in Sao Paulo on Thursday. His name was OK’d by Israel’s Cabinet on Jan. 17, but kept secret until Brazil signed off, in strict adherence to diplomatic protocol. [Read more…]